Otya nno

So Jambo is Swahili but many people in Uganda speak Lugandan instead. Otya nno is how you say hello in Lugandan! Don't ask me how to pronounce it the language is still very difficult to me. Luckily almost everyone speaks English as well.

The past two days have been wonderful. Yesterday we woke up to go to a museum of Ugandan History where we got to play instruments, see local animals (stuffed of course), see traditional hairstyles and dressings, as well as look in some different types of tribal homes. All very fascinating! We also found Mzungu shirts everywhere which I thought was hilarious (by the way I misspelled it yesterday it is Mzungu not Muzungu). Right before we were done with the tribal homes, which were outside, it started raining. I will tell you what the rain in Africa does not play around. This was a downpour to the extreme! SO, of course we got soaked! On the drive back the roads were already flooding I almost had a heart attack when we crossed over a median to the other side of the road to stay out of the water our driver was crazy but we stayed dry. When we finally made it through the river (once a street) to Makerere University Guest House to take naps/eat lunch. I personally just took a nap, I was a little overwhelmed by the cultural differences and thought that it would be a good idea to rest.

After the weather cleared up we went up to The Acorn School which is also the headquarters of KKL (Kampala Kids League) is located, to watch students of The Acorn School participate in a mini scrimmage soccer (pronounced socca here). They were adorable I am trying to get some photos uploaded shortly it might not be until tomorrow, so be patient!

Unfortunately the game time was over and we were off to our next excursion! We were going to a concert by the performers of Percussion Discussion. This was traditional music from all parts of Uganda and there were about ten people along with three female dancers. They were fabulous but of course I was afraid when I saw them because I assumed they would try and get us up there and dance. Oh, I was right. It ended up so much fun though. I couldn't believe the energy they were putting out into the crowd.

The show ended about 10pm and it was time for us to make our journey back home luckily the floods were long gone.

Today we woke up about 8:30 to go to KKL and speak with Willis ( he runs the A-League and KKL which is an adaptive program for kids with disabilities). I found out Lauren (the other Sport Mgmt Major) and I will be coaching this Saturday! I am so excited to help out it is very similar to the TopSoccer program I have helped with at RYSA in the past however unfortunately they are in dire need of volunteers to keep all of the kids active and having fun. We did a little exercise basically Willis wanted to see how we would help them but me in particular it seemed. I did my best but in my mock match I had two players with mental disabilities, two who were visually impaired, one who was hearing impaired, and two with out any disabilities. This was hard for me because in order to keep everyone under control I had to make sure everyone had a buddy but there were not enough people to do so.

In Uganda, there are usually only two meals a day so if I don't say anything about lunch it is because there usually is not one! Instead of lunch we went to a market what we thought was a relaxing art market. Turns out the taxi driver misunderstood us and it was not so chill. It was actually really scary almost like something you would have seen on Slumdog Millionare. Except we were all getting marriage proposals and being called names. Not so much our liking! We lasted about ten minutes and I just didn't feel comfortable. Luckily we made it back okay but it was my turn for the "death watch" which is the front seat. This was definitely an experience! But our new driver Vincent was much better than the others.

After the ten minutes of lasting in the market we went to an organization called In Movement. This organization provides multi-dimensional artistic training specifically in dance, theatre, circus arts, music, visual arts, and creative writing. The organization mainly works with orphanages because they are in need of ways to describe themselves in ways other than words because many cannot read. There are an estimated two million orphans in Uganda out of a population of thirty million due to HIV/AIDS. The members of this organization are just doing great things with the children and even us! We were taught a traditional dance called Amagunju which was preformed for the King while he was taking part in things like meetings I believe.

Today was wonderful and it helps me start to realize the differences between cultures.